Disrupt your model fast before somebody else does it for you

The digital revolution has already fundamentally rewritten the rules of many industries. This process of change is accelerating and will disrupt and transform society and almost every business.

My job is to help Telefónica — a company that you may still think of as a former fixed incumbent telco from Spain, but is actually a global communications company with annual revenue of €60 billion (£49 billion) that is in the process of transforming its business model — to embrace the digital revolution. Digital technology does not recognise physical boundaries or respect companies that have been successful in the past. The low barriers to entry, the minimal cost of innovation and the speed with which customers adopt new products and abandon products they have grown up with, have…